Bill 169: Helping Hardworking Nova Scotians Get Ahead Act

Any Nova Scotia business that employs hourly, salaried, piece-rate, or commission workers will need to rethink scheduling and payroll practices — especially those in retail, hospitality, construction, healthcare, and transportation where employees regularly work variable or extended hours. Trucking companies face specific new rules depending on whether their drivers operate within or beyond a 160-kilometre radius of their home terminal. Small employers and solo-operator businesses with part-time or on-call staff will be directly hit by the 3-hour minimum call-in pay rule, which adds cost whenever a worker is summoned outside their regular schedule. Employers who previously relied on the 48-hour weekly overtime threshold will need to update payroll systems and staffing models to account for overtime kicking in at 40 hours, and will need to track daily hours carefully since overtime also now triggers after 8 hours in a single day.